Rush Needs More Truth, Less Rhetoric

By Jeremy Hylton
Editor in Chief

Every freshman is greeted the same way at MIT: You were not admitted by
mistake, you are told. "Each of you is here because we know that you have
the intellectual capacity, the energy, the imagination, and the will to
succeed," President Vest said to you.

It seems strange that many of the upperclassmen and administrators who run
Residence and Orientation Week -- and a fair number of the people who don't
like the way it's run -- forgot that welcome. They don't give you enough
credit.

The wonderful thing about R/O Week here is that you are given the freedom
to choose where you want to live. Other colleges have computerized schemes
that match up students who major in computer science or people who like
Star Trek (hardly a discriminating factor at MIT). Here it's up to you to
find somewhere that you fit in.

Rush would be a lot better if the Ad Hoc Committee on an Informed Rush did
not cover the campus in sensational posters about ILGs and you probably
have an easier time finding a living group if bad mouthing rules did not
limit what people can tell you about independent living groups.

The Ad Hoc Committee's name is something of a misnomer. The group
promulgates every stereotype that you can imagine about fraternities and
sororities. Some of the fraternities here are probably guilty of some of
the things that the committee's posters describe, but the committee's
picture of fraternity life is wildly different than the one I saw during my
two years in a fraternity.

Admittedly, my experience in a fraternity is colored by the fact that I
pledged Zeta Beta Tau, which has no pledge period. That doesn't necessarily
mean that freshmen are treated exactly the same as upperclassmen at ZBT,
but it does mean I missed out on the pledging rituals of some
fraternities.

Living in a fraternity, for the record, was a terrific choice. I did have
some extra housework to do as a freshman; I did have to spend a week here
during Independent Activities Period doing cleaning and maintenance; I did
participate in a secret initiation ceremony. I was not hazed, nor was any
other freshman. I never got drunk, nor did anyone expect me to. I made a
lot of friends, worked on problem sets into the wee hours of the morning,
played foosball. I took a road trip to Washington, D.C. I got along with
some of the people at ZBT. I didn't like some of the people.

In short, I had an experience not unlike the experience a lot of people had
in dormitories. Every living group will have some tension between
residents, every group has its traditions -- look at the Burton Bombers or
the Bexley anti-rush.

One poster suggested the following course of events: "Get shitfaced ... Get
hazed ... Learn how to rape ..." This kind of trash is disappointing. There
is no need to insult your intelligence this way. If there are problems at
fraternities, they should be described fairly and accurately -- then you
can make an informed decision.

As if the anti-fraternity rhetoric weren't bad enough, the Inter-Fraternity
Council strictly enforces a gag rule on all its members. If you're in a
fraternity, you can't say anything bad about another fraternity. This
stonewalling is as ill-advised as posters that portray only the ills of
fraternities.

Ostensibly, the bad mouthing rule prevents a fraternity from lying about
another group to convince you to stay at that fraternity or to keep you
away from some other ILG. It's a worthy enough goal to try to keep rush
bias-free, but it is not very realistic.

Spoon feeding you only the good side of other ILGs compromises the basic
premise of rush -- that you are mature enough and intelligent enough to
make your own decision. If someone told you that a particular fraternity
treats women poorly (come to think of it, the ad hoc committee told you
that all fraternities do) and you were interested in visiting that
fraternity, you would, I trust, check the claim for yourself. Fraternities
are all selling something this week -- and you should never trust
everything a salesman says.

Suppose, though, that you went to the fraternity and asked a few questions
about how women are treated by the fraternity. You might discover that the
fraternity's attitudes are not compatible with your own. Then bad mouthing,
regardless of intent, would have saved you from a big mistake.

The IFC gag rule even limits what factually true statements can be made
about another fraternity. Only the barest facts about the incident at Phi
Beta Epsilon, please, the IFC says -- otherwise it would be bad mouthing.
Part of the logic at work here is that if you want to know something -- and
you can't be told because of the bad mouthing rules -- then you can go to
an administrator and ask him.

It is downright ridiculous to expect you to track down an administrator or
someone else not covered by the gag rule to unearth some of the details of
the incident at PBE or the theft of $70,000 of computer equipment by some
brothers at another fraternity a few years ago. You should have pretty easy
access to this kind of information. It's important.

To make matters worse, these administrators probably are not available to
talk to you. Neal H. Dorow, adviser to fraternitites and independent living
groups, made it clear to one Tech reporter that he did not have
any time to answer questions -- not even two minutes. Good luck
tracking him down yourself.

Today fraternities will be extending bids. Trust your instincts and your
judgement. Don't believe everything you are told. It may be difficult to
make an informed decision, but try your best.